Keith Wilson: Calendar / Liam Crichton: SLEEPER / Barbara Knezevic: The Last Thing on Earth

The MAC is pleased to announce a trio of newly commissioned exhibitions exploring the possibilities of sculpture, installation, and object making in 2016 from artists Keith Wilson, Liam Crichton, and Barbara Knezevic.

Keith Wilson: Calendar
August 12–October 16 in the Upper Gallery

For this major exhibition British artist Keith Wilson further develops his longstanding investigation into the cultural status of sculpture, considering how ideas develop in the private sphere of the artist’s studio and transform into a public presentation of work in a gallery.

At the core of Calendar is a large-scale galvanised steel structure made up of multiple cubic units, organised in a series akin to the familiar monthly grid arrangement used for wall planners and electronic diary systems. These units are then occupied by various objects, items, and ephemera that offer a view into the artist’s studio from the wider enclosure of public space within the MAC.

This artistic practice comprises an ongoing enquiry into the contingency of meaning specifically in relation to the public functioning of sculpture. The artist is interested in exploring the power relations inherent in everyday human interactions and his exhibitions are often dramatized by having to navigate your way around apparently authoritative pieces of highly ordered sculptural material.

Liam Crichton: SLEEPER
August 12–September 9 in the Sunken Gallery

We are pleased to be presenting the first institutional solo exhibition in the UK and Ireland from Belfast-based artist Liam Crichton.

This newly commissioned work responds specifically to the architectural space of our Sunken Gallery, transforming it into an immersive installation that takes its name from the psychoactive sedative Benzodiazepine.

This work layers together concerns relating to classical Greco-Roman frieze sculpture, contemporary urban voids in the built environment, and ideas of philosophical consciousness through a rigorously considered process of abstraction and minimalist aestheticism. Crichton will distil these varied and somewhat disparate touchstones and references into a single sculptural entity to envelope viewers within the space. Exploiting the sculptural qualities of industrial materials commonly associated with labour and construction this project will enact a kind of psychological emptying-out of the gallery, exploring ideas of social entropy, the void, and the sublime.

Barbara Knezevic: The Last Thing on Earth
September 16–October 16 in the Sunken Gallery

This project will also mark the first institutional solo presentation of work in the UK and Ireland from Dublin-based artist Barbara Knezevic.

This exhibition begins with a proposition. What if this is the last thing, the final material to be pulled out of the ground, the final piece of stuff that has not already been purposed by humans?

This speculative "thing" will be contained within the gallery space. Surrounding it will be a multitude of other physical items whose role is to act in its service. Boundless questions will arise; how is its form negotiated, its value, its needs, its position within the world, its relationship with a viewer, its relationship to the MAC, its infinite possibilities, and impossibilities. This thing, these questions, and everything else contained within this project embody the artist’s interest in the means by which meaning and value of the things around us are constructed and disseminated in contemporary culture.

These exhibitions are, as always, free to visit and open to the public daily from 10am-7pm.